


Home is Where the Heart is

by paranoids



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Heart-to-Heart, Protective Siblings, and a lot of sappy sibling goodness, just one of jonathan's famous pep talks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 19:57:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19837459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranoids/pseuds/paranoids
Summary: Shortly after the Byers move, Jonathan is awoken late at night by the sound of El crying. A warm heart-to-heat ensues. Takes place after the season 3 finale.





	Home is Where the Heart is

It was approximately 2:30 A.M. when the sniffles hit their peak. Jonathan had been sleeping through them mostly, but they still managed to permeate his subconscious and invade his dreams; there was loud crying in an endless black sea, and Jonathan was running around like a headless chicken trying to find the cause. It was around this time that they finally roused him awake, and he was able to put a source to the sound: El. 

She was in the room across the hall from his and Will’s – he’d never imagined having to share a room at seventeen with his little brother – and the sound carried effortlessly through the crack of their door to his bed. Will managed to stay asleep. 

For several moments he lay still, unsure of what to do, only that he felt inclined to do something. 

So, he got up. 

Tip-toeing across the hall, he knocked softly on El’s door. At once, the sniffling sounds ceased and there was silence. 

“Yes?” a soft voice called out from inside. 

“Hey, El, it’s me,” Jonathan whispered. “Everything OK?” 

A beat of silence.

Then, “Yes.” 

“Do you mind if I come in?” Jonathan asked softly. 

Instead of an answer, the door creaked open by itself. Jonathan stepped in warily. Opposing him, sitting upright on her little twin bed, was El, the moonlight exposing the blood trickling down from her nostril.

“Hi,” he breathed. 

“Hi,” she echoed. 

“Everything okay?” 

El shrugged. 

“Mind if I… sit down?” He gestured to the chair belonging to the desk next to her bed. El shook her head. 

Jonathan abandoned the doorway and ventured farther into the darkness of her room. He fumbled around looking for the chair with his hands, unable to see in the dark. At once, the lamp light flickered on and Jonathan could see El clear as day – eyes puffy and red, pale, tired. 

Jonathan lowered himself into the seat and turned to face El. He gave her a warm smile. She tried to smile back, but it came off looking half-hearted and glum. 

Jonathan tapped his fingers absentmindedly on the desk. 

“You know,” he broke the silence after a moment, “I haven’t really been able to sleep.” 

It was more or less the truth. Sure, her whimpers had awoken him, but he had been close enough to the surface of consciousness as it was to be awoken at all. 

El looked up to meet his gaze, eyes encouraging him to continue. 

“I guess… I’m just nervous about a new school. Especially as a senior.” He took a deep breath. “I’m not very good… with people.” His honesty surprised even him. 

“I’m not good with people,” El chimed in. 

“Hey, you’re better than me,” he cracked a smile, “you have a whole group of friends who love you back home.” 

“Home,” she whispered.

Jonathan smiled. Without thinking, he started talking, letting the words escape freely from his lips. 

“You know, Will asked me once why I didn’t have any friends. And at the time I was a little taken aback but I guess… I guess he was right, in a way. I don’t have people like you have your party. It’s just… hard for me. Most people… don’t get me, I guess. And I don’t get them.” 

El’s eyebrows scrunched. “Do you try?” 

“Try what?” 

“To… ‘get’ them. To understand.” 

Jonathan looked down, embarrassed. “You know, I guess I don’t. Not really, anyways. I just always expect…” 

“hurt.” 

Jonathan glanced up. 

“They’ll hurt you,” El spoke softly. “That’s what you expect.” 

Jonathan hadn’t come in for an examination of the depths of his own personality, but at once he felt exposed, vulnerable. He ran a hand through his hair and looked down at his lap. He hadn’t expected this pep talk to turn around on him, but somehow it had. 

“I think you know people a lot better than you think,” Jonathan said after a moment, with a light chuckle, his face still warm with embarrassment. 

“I know hurt,” El’s voice was low. 

Jonathan looked back up. Of course she does, he thought. How stupid of him to come in here and try and find common ground when he would never know the kind of pain that El had gone through in her life. Hell, in the last three months. 

“Better than anyone,” Jonathan agreed. His voice lowered. “You miss them.” It wasn’t a question. 

“Yes,” she agreed, and her eyes began to water once again.

Jonathan, without thinking, reached out to put his hand on top of hers, reassuringly. It was pure instinct, no thought at all; in that moment he just needed to comfort her in some way. He felt a deep-seeded protectiveness of her. 

This act of affection encouraged El to continue, unprompted. “I miss Mike,” she admitted. “I miss Max. Dustin, Lucas. I miss…” she breathed in deeply, “Hop.”

Jonathan nodded. “I know.” 

“It’s just like before,” she continued.

“What is?” 

“I was alone. Then there was Mike, and my friends, and Hop. Now… they’re all gone. I’m alone again.” 

Jonathan’s heart sank into the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know much about El’s background, only that she grew up in a lab with the “bad men” … but he imagined it must have been extremely lonely. His heart ached for that little girl without a friend in the world.

“It’s not like before.” He took her hand in his and squeezed. “It’s not. Because you have me. And Will and mom. And… we’re a family.” 

And, surprising to them both, he meant it. As hard as it was to let people in for Jonathan, El had slipped into his life and his heart unnoticed until she was lodged there, permanently. When, he didn’t know; whether it was over the last three months she’d spent at the Byers, or sometime before, floating in a kiddie pool of salt to rescue his brother. What mattered was she was there, now. 

“No one will ever replace Hopper,” he continued. “But you’ve still got us. And you’ll never be alone, ever again.” 

She met his eyes and stared, vulnerable, waiting for him to change his mind, to back away, to laugh, to do anything. 

But he didn’t. He met her gaze and gave her hand another squeeze. 

“Promise?” she asked in a voice soft enough to be a whisper. 

A passionate determination surged within him. He was not going to let her down. Ever.

“I promise.”

She reached up all at once, a flurry of limbs, and wrapped herself around Jonathan in a tight hug. 

Jonathan didn’t hesitate to hug her back. It was as natural as breathing. 

Time passed quickly in their silent embrace, until finally they split apart and El smiled up at Jonathan. Her eyes were still watering but the sorrow had vacated and they twinkled with hope. 

Jonathan smiled back down at her. 

“You should try to get some sleep. Big day tomorrow.”

El nodded and lay back into bed, resting her head against the pillow. She allowed Jonathan to pull the blanket back over her. 

He turned off the lamp before she could do so herself, and in the darkness he crept back to the doorway. 

“Night, El,” he called before closing the door behind him. 

“Goodnight.”


End file.
